World Peace injury puts strain on lineup

OAKLAND The Lakers' hope was that Pau Gasol's return from injury would create, after years of disappointments, a consistently solid second unit.

The Lakers figured to have enough depth that fill-in starter Earl Clark wouldn't have regular minutes once Gasol got back to his usual level of conditioning.

But the Lakers' depth was woefully lacking Monday night at Golden State with Antawn Jamison struggling to adjust to a sprained right wrist suffered last game and then starting small forward Metta World Peace not playing the second half because of a strained left knee.

Welcome back, Earl.

Shooting guard Jodie Meeks started the second half in World Peace's place.

World Peace returned to the Lakers' bench before the fourth quarter, moving around some on the leg. The Lakers have today off before a back-to-back set at Minnesota on Wednesday and Milwaukee on Thursday.

World Peace has been one of the few Lakers to avoid significant injuries this season, although Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said World Peace wasn't full strength in his lower body earlier this season and struggled to defend small forwards.

Aside from the first half Monday night against Golden State exposing Gasol as moving very poorly in his second game back from the torn plantar fascia in his right foot, it showed again that the Lakers' second unit is heavily reliant on 3-point shots.

Reserves Jamison, Meeks, Steve Blake and Clark combined to shoot 0 for 9 from the field in the first half – and six of those shots were 3-pointers. The Lakers trailed, 63-40.

With 8:27 to play, the reserves were still down: a combined 3 for 20 (1 for 9 on 3-pointers). And the Lakers trailed, 100-81.

Jamison told D'Antoni that there was no pain in his wrist when he was shooting, but Jamison looked tentative in the game.

HOWARD'S JUMPER

Although it might not be the highest-percentage play in the Lakers offense, Dwight Howard's jump shot is a worthwhile cause.

Howard's willingness to take the shots in the game is representative of progress in a basic sense: Howard has trouble accepting the downside of missing shots, so he is sometimes overly worried about missing — as happens with his free throws.

But from a practical perspective, Howard has much to gain by developing a decent jumper.

Here's the way D'Antoni framed it before the game at Golden State on Monday night: “When a team knows all you can do is post up and you're not a very good foul shooter ...”

Defenses are very physical with Howard in the post and eager to foul him. If Howard expands his game to add a jumper, it would complicate things considerably for defenders. Howard is already a proven defensive dynamo, but his post moves are not particularly polished and he struggles to take his time with his shooting release. Oftentimes Howard just flips the ball up toward the basket instead of being focused on scoring, and his effectiveness in his first Lakers season has been far greater in pick-and-roll sets than from the post, his preferred area of operation.

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